A man raised in Agassiz has found his calling among the rocks and clear blue waters of Cayoosh Creek.

Along his journey of sobriety after a long battle with drug and alcohol addiction, Renegade Prospectors co-founder Rick Curiston 91裸聊视频� now loving life in Lillooet 91裸聊视频� hopes to turn his prospecting passion into a new career.

Curiston91裸聊视频檚 skills in video editing and creating content he developed as a DJ spurred him on to create a YouTube channel, documenting his new-found love of small-scale mining and prospecting.

91裸聊视频淓veryone in Agassiz would most remember me as the crazy DJ that partied all night, and I was in the festival scene for many years before COVID,91裸聊视频� he said.

The name Renegade Prospectors is a reference to his former annual festival 91裸聊视频淲eekend Renegade.91裸聊视频�

91裸聊视频淚 smoked crack for 11 years,91裸聊视频� Curiston said. 91裸聊视频淚91裸聊视频檝e been clean for eight. I found prospecting 11 months ago, and I91裸聊视频檝e been sober for a year.91裸聊视频�

91裸聊视频淚91裸聊视频檒l always be an addict, but now it91裸聊视频檚 for gold,91裸聊视频� he added.

Curiston and his fiancee Tina Francis made a pact to get sober together and stuck to it. The Renegade Prospectors logo contains a nod to the couple91裸聊视频檚 past; the web in the dream catcher resembles the dopamine molecule. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter linked to the brain91裸聊视频檚 pleasure centre and plays a key role in the forming of habits, both good (socializing, eating properly) and bad (gambling, addiction).

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He vividly remembers the first time he found his first piece of gold while panning along Cayoosh Creek.

91裸聊视频淧rospecting takes us to a whole new level,91裸聊视频� Curiston said. 91裸聊视频淭he high I got from seeing that [first piece of gold] 91裸聊视频� shake [the pan] back, and bang! There it was. I jumped right up and yelped.91裸聊视频�

Curiston hopes to incorporate parts of his First Nations ancestry in his YouTube channel 91裸聊视频� also named Renegade Prospectors 91裸聊视频� speaking on local legends in addition to showcasing his prospecting finds. He hopes to turn his channel and his hobby prospecting into a career.

Prospecting, hobby mining and panning for gold is the trendy new hobby in the Cayoosh Creek area, according to Curiston.

91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 booming right now because of COVID; we91裸聊视频檝e bumped into a lot of people, all newbies,91裸聊视频� he said. 91裸聊视频淭here91裸聊视频檚 nothing else to do!91裸聊视频�

After seeing Curiston and Francis91裸聊视频檚 success, the couple91裸聊视频檚 received private messages across social media looking for their expertise in the hobby.

Agate seems to be their most common find.

91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 huge on agate,91裸聊视频� Curiston said of the Cayoosh Creek area. Agate is a volcanic rock that melds chalcedony and quartz.

Prior to venturing out, Curiston looks for irregularities and coloration in the land using Google Earth to help him determine where to look next.

91裸聊视频淲e haven91裸聊视频檛 found 91裸聊视频榥othing91裸聊视频� yet. Every time, it works,91裸聊视频� Curiston said.

Then, off he goes treasure hunting with Francis, 4-year-old daughter Paisley and loyal canine friend Biscuit.

91裸聊视频淸Paisley] even has her own hat, vest, gear and tools for digging agates and amethyst,91裸聊视频� Curiston said. 91裸聊视频淪he91裸聊视频檚 still the holder of the best purple piece of amethyst to date! Due to her being so close to the ground, she finds the really nice stuff.91裸聊视频�

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Among their biggest hauls is a 35-pound piece of agate and amethyst chunks the size of Curiston91裸聊视频檚 fist. He described the first amethyst find as a 91裸聊视频減ocket glowing with purple inside.91裸聊视频�

91裸聊视频淭hat was it, all high fives,91裸聊视频� he recalled. 91裸聊视频淲e started chiseling; it91裸聊视频檚 took two and a half hours to get it out of super hard, hard rock. It was super, super dense rock, but it was very worth it.91裸聊视频�

Francis is enrolled in online schooling for business skills and has been working on building blogs. She crafts pendants 91裸聊视频� doing everything from polishing to cutting gems to assembling the pendants themselves 91裸聊视频� from the agate they find while prospecting and has sold a few already to friends and family.

When they91裸聊视频檙e not treasure hunting, the family likes to fish for trout and hike, exploring familiar trails, relics and old mining sites possibly hearkening back to the days of the Cayoosh Creek Gold Rush in the late 1800s.

Curiston and Francis have been posting videos since late August on YouTube, garnering just under 40 subscribers so far. Their Facebook page is more active with more than 100 followers as of publication; the page features photos of their finds, video briefs out in the field and articles about mining and prospecting. They have also set up a Patreon page for those who want to support their work and content.

91裸聊视频淭hanks to those who have helped me, guided me into the world of prospecting and who have supported me along the way,91裸聊视频� Curiston wrote on Facebook at the one year sober mark. 91裸聊视频淚 appreciate every one of you. Life has changed a lot in the past few years and I91裸聊视频檓 so happy I can live every day now, clean and sober.91裸聊视频�

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